The five people killed and five injured when an Amazon cargo plane crashed on landing at Miami International Airport were in two vehicles on the ground, investigators said.
The Boeing 767-300, operated by 21 Air, overshot the runway on Sunday and hit an airline cleaning van holding seven people before breaking the perimeter fence and striking a Toyota SUV with three inside.
Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), called the crash scene “utter devastation” and said it was too early to identify a cause.
Investigators have recovered the flight recorders and will look at flight systems, crew experience and weather as potential factors, say aviation experts.
Miami authorities on Tuesday identified the five people who died as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
Three people remain in hospital, including two in critical condition. The pilot and co-pilot, who were also injured, have since been released from hospital, officials said, according to the Miami Herald, external.
“It’s an incredibly tragic incident that has occurred,” the Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz told reporters on Tuesday. “One leaves their house to go to work, to visit family, to do what we normally do, without thinking that is even a possibility.”
Lawyers representing the widow of one of the victims said in a statement that they would pursue justice for those “impacted by what we believe was an entirely preventable tragedy”.
“No one should lose their loved one this way, and we will pursue every possible avenue of justice for this family,” said lawyers John Morgan and Jorge Garcia.
“Everyone who played a role in this horrific crash will be held accountable.”
Earlier, speaking at a press conference at Miami International Airport on Monday, the NTSB’s Homendy said the aircraft had two crew members on board and was arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, on its third flight of the day.
The plane struck navigational aids and equipment after overrunning the runway, before hitting a white Ford van owned by a contract cleaning company.
It then travelled through a perimeter fence and collided with a Toyota Corolla, coming to rest about 1,300ft (394m) beyond the runway.
